sorry its my bad, listening to too much Walton and Johnson on the way to work, forgot about the communist beliefs, "player "life style he had plus teaching the pc stuff in school you start to forget...
Hey Brother Dwid, I thought the same thing while listening to Walton and Johnson last week. They are very talented at what they do best, which is being radio smart-asses. But W&J are even more shallow than Limbaugh, Hannity, et al when it comes to discussing politics, especially so on race.
For those unfamiliar with Walton and Johnson, their basic theme was the neo-con boilerplate: "Dr King wanted us all to be judged by the content of our character..." and "Dr King would feel betrayed by today's race hustlers."
Let's be frank about MLK. First, **** him, whatever it may be alleged he wanted or would have wanted! Who the hell died and made him the arbiter of good and bad, right and wrong? Who cares what he would have wanted?
Next, taking one small snippet from one small speech -- whether he plagiarized the line or not -- is no way to assess the MLK record. The late leftwing street agitator said lots of things! Another sentiment he often voiced was his wish that the fedgov force "affirmative action" to favor negroes. Furthermore, judging individuals by the content of their character and judging groups by what we know of their group's norms or tendencies are not inconsistent practices. One may recognize the relative intellectual acuity of a Walter Williams and still recognize that negroes, en masse, are, as Teddy Roosevelt said, "a perfectly stupid race."
In other words, there was nothing special or magical about the concept of judging each individual on his or her merits. That has been a white norm for a long, long, long time. Marxist Looter King did not introduce that distinctly Western ethical concept into American culture. He merely used it to tug at the heartstrings of the naive (i.e. Americans who had very little exposure to real negroes).
The "color of skin" part of that imagery was intended to piggyback on the ignorant pop-cultural notion that racial differences amount to color, hue, pigmentation, complexion, yadda yadda... Anything to drag discussion of race at that time (as in our present day) away from the biochemical differences between peoples.
To the idea that MLK is floating aloft with a tear in his saintly eye, dismayed by the antic of Sharpton, Jackson, Sheila Jackson Lee, et al... Cracka pleeze! Jesse was MLK's sidekick. They chased tail together, traveled together, discussed strategy, and the like. At the time he was murdered, MLK was already a has-been, a damaged brand. Much like Jesse is today. Every one of King's former cohorts -- Andy Young, Jesse, Ralph Abernathy, Joseph Lowery, John Lewis, wife Coretta -- is a leftwing, pro- forced integration, pro- affirmative action, pro- expanded state ideologue, as he himself was. It is impossible to say with 100% certainty that MLK would have remained a strident leftwinger, as his closest friends and family have. Neither is there ANY reason to suppose he might have become some sort of "conservative."
Nor or WE obligated to uphold or pursue his "dream."